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Descriptions

An experiment was conducted to examine the possible impact of an engineering design and problem solving process overview document on knowledge management and capture. A process overview document was first created. Next, two multi-disciplinary design teams worked over a two-week span to develop concepts to address a problematic opportunity. One group had access to the overview document, while the control group did not. Two hypotheses, related to the number of times individuals checked available reference material, were tested. In particular, groups that had access to the overview document were expected to have more reference acts. Results of the hypotheses tests found an absence of statistical significance. Additionally, data gathered to answer five research questions indicate some favorable characteristics to the overview document’s diffusion as an innovation. An experimental model was established upon which future generalizable experiments can be based, and a second design process model was developed for further study.